This invention relates to a device for quickly and conveniently exposing and removing coins from a wrapped roll of coins and, more specifically to a device adapted for slicing, tearing, piercing or scoring the wrapper (made of paper, plastic, etc.) of a coin roll to facilitate opening of the coin roll and removal of coins therefrom. The devices of the present invention will be designated "coin roll openers" throughout the specification and claims.
It is common practice for banks and businesses to utilize coin wrappers. The wrappers are manufactured of either paper or plastic, or any other suitable material, and in certain lengths and diameters so as to accommodate a given number of a particular coin denomination. For example, a penny wrapper is sized to have fifty pennies fitted into it. Other specially sized wrappers are available to have fitted therein given numbers of nickels, dimes and quarters.
Once the coins are inserted into the wrapper, the ends of the wrapper are closed or otherwise turned under or reduced in size to complete the wrapping. The coins in such a wrapped roll can then be handled easily and in known dollar values, with assurance that the contents of the roll will not spill out.
In use, the wrapped roll of coins are distributed to cashiers who must, as a matter of course, make change for customers. When the cashier runs out of a certain coin denomination, a roll of that coin denomination is opened and its contents are spilled into the cash register for ready availability. How the coin roll is opened by the cashier forms the subject of the present invention.
When a cashier needs to open a wrapped roll of coins, the coin roll will normally be firmly grasped and sharply banged indiscriminantly against an edge of a cash register, a money drawer of the cash register, a countertop or other nearby object. As a result of this blow to the roll of coins, the wrapper is at least partly split or broken so that its contents can be easily removed.
Although this procedure is effective, it also is problematic for both the cashier and whichever of the cash register, countertop or other object against which the cashier indiscriminantly chooses to smash the coin roll u against in order to gain access to its contents.
The multiple repeated blows delivered by the very hard coin roll can result in damage to the cash register (i.e. to the electronics of the cash register, the drawer(s), drawer tracks, display(s), etc.), countertop or other object against which the coin roll is smashed.
Cash registers have become less sturdy and more complicated. The metal of cash registers of times past has been typically replaced by plastic, and the sturdy internal mechanisms have been replaced by electronic elements that perform calculations and various other sensing and data processing functions. When a coin roll is banged against any part of the cash register, shock waves travel throughout the machine to all of its components. Such shocks may cause expensive-to-repair damage to not only the mechanical or structural components of the cash register, but also the electronics and other shock-sensitive components of the cash register, including sensitive display elements.
Countertops and other objects too have become more delicate. The hard wood of countertops and other sturdy objects of times past has been typically replaced by Formica or other less sturdy materials. These newer materials are not as capable of withstanding over the course of time multiple repeated blows from very hard objects such as metal coin rolls. Very often, the impact of the coin rolls physically damages the countertops or other objects.
Since the cashier may need to open quite a large number of coin rolls during the course of a business day, the repetition of shocks to the hands from repeated smashings, day after day, can result in injury to the cashier over a long period of time.
Coin roll openers known in the prior art include both handheld opening devices, such as those exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,852,255 (Hochfeld), 4,852,253 (Uchida), 4,757,611 (Tommi et al.) and 4,001,934 (Bell), and mountable devices, such as those exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,825,738 (Jones), 4,382,330 (Harbaugh) and 4,040,183 (Cassier).
The problem with the known handheld opening devices of the prior art is that due to the extra time and effort it requires to pick up and operate the devices, they tend not to be used. The problem with the known mountable devices of the prior art is that they too require operation motions to which cashiers are unaccustomed and thus also tend not to be used. Moreover, the known prior art mountable devices further take up otherwise usable countertop or cashier space and interfere with everyday normal operations.